[He goes rigid, his gaze fierce, as if Alfred has slapped him.]
No! [Oswald shouts, breaking free with a strength he shouldn't have.] I am not leaving!
[His heart clenches with a sense of desperate purpose, with a promise not to abandon Ed to the gloved, uncaring hands that would come for the corpses. One last indignity towards a man whose life was made up of nothing but indignities. Oswald makes a beeline for him, half-crawling half-dragging himself along, skin squealing over tiles. Doggedly, his breath coming in short, shallow heaves. But sheer force of will isn’t enough. He collapses an arm’s length from Ed’s side, shy of reaching a shaky hand out and touching him. Shy of feeling the unyielding denseness of a body that once braced his, held his steady, when he staggered around half-blinded. A body he could never pull close and find comfort in again.
He strains to move, choking out an angry sob. But his own has finally given up on him. Has already made peace with the darkness swallowing his senses and pulling him under. All he can think of, as his world disappears, is how sorry he is. And of how meaningless apologies are for the dead, too.]
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No! [Oswald shouts, breaking free with a strength he shouldn't have.] I am not leaving!
[His heart clenches with a sense of desperate purpose, with a promise not to abandon Ed to the gloved, uncaring hands that would come for the corpses. One last indignity towards a man whose life was made up of nothing but indignities. Oswald makes a beeline for him, half-crawling half-dragging himself along, skin squealing over tiles. Doggedly, his breath coming in short, shallow heaves. But sheer force of will isn’t enough. He collapses an arm’s length from Ed’s side, shy of reaching a shaky hand out and touching him. Shy of feeling the unyielding denseness of a body that once braced his, held his steady, when he staggered around half-blinded. A body he could never pull close and find comfort in again.
He strains to move, choking out an angry sob. But his own has finally given up on him. Has already made peace with the darkness swallowing his senses and pulling him under. All he can think of, as his world disappears, is how sorry he is. And of how meaningless apologies are for the dead, too.]